Cash in the Aisles: How Gift Cards are Easily Exploited

Cottonwood A
October 3, 2018
11:30 am - 12:20 pm

Will Caput

It is commonly thought that gift cards must be activated to have any monetary value. Often displayed on counter-tops and lining grocery store aisles, seemingly worthless inactivated gift cards are free for anyone to grab a handful. However, weaker security features than the average credit card makes these gift cards nearly as valuable as cash. Mass produced, their numbers follow a predictable pattern and have limited built-in security, such as chip and pin, to prevent fraud.

This presentation will demonstrate little-known weaknesses in multiple gift card systems, show how these weaknesses can be exploited, and suggest better countermeasures to theft than the ones currently in place.